1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to bottle openers, and more particularly to a tool for gripping and removing champagne bottle stoppers, wire baskets, and foil simultaneously with one easy twist quickly, easily and safely in such a way as to prevent the stopper from injuring anyone or damaging anything in the vicinity combined with a corkscrew with a lever arm and a bottle cap opener, thereby enabling easily removal of the stopper from a bottle of wine and the cap from virtually any type of beverage bottle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Opening a bottle of champagne can be quite a difficult procedure, as the cork or nylon stopper in the bottle is under extreme pressure. Typically, the procedure for removing the stopper from a bottle of champagne is to remove the foil and the wire basket from around the bottle neck and then firmly grasp the stopper and force it out of the bottle with a twisting, turning or thrusting motion. Unfortunately, removing a stopper in this manner is quite difficult or even impossible for people with small hands or diminished gripping strength. More importantly, this stopper-removal procedure is also dangerous for the person removing the stopper and for any people or property nearby. Since the stopper in a properly chilled bottle of champagne is under approximately 90 pounds of pressure, when it is dislodged from the bottle neck it frequently bursts from the opener's grasp and flies erratically through the air, in some instances striking and injuring a person or damaging property. There are numerous instances in which freed stoppers have knocked out front teeth, damaged eyes and gashed foreheads so deeply that stitches were required. Stoppers have also banged up furniture and become imbedded in acoustical tile.
This problem has become so acute that most champagne bottles now contain a warning label outlining the associated dangers. In fact, many champagne makers have changed the configuration of the bottle neck and experimented with a variety of other such techniques in an attempt to reduce the dangers associated with removing the stopper. Unfortunately, these alterations have done little to reduce the danger since, no matter what the bottle configuration, the stopper is still under a great deal of pressure and thus can cause serious injury upon removal.
Not only have the difficulties in removing the stopper caused personal injury and property damage, but they have also caused an increase in the price of champagne. Because opening a bottle of champagne can cause injury, champagne makers and the restaurants that serve it face an increased chance of lawsuit, thus raising their insurance premiums and, in turn, raising the cost to the consumer. In addition, manufacturing specialty bottles or stoppers is an expensive procedure, which again translates into higher prices to the consumer.
The use of corkscrews to remove the cork in a wine bottle is well known in the art, as is the use of a bottle opener to remove the cap on beer, and soft drinks. However, corkscrews and bottle openers are not effective for use in removing champagne stoppers. Unfortunately, to date there are no tools in the prior art that are capable of easily, quickly and safely removing the stopper from a bottle of champagne.
United Kingdom Patent No. 19,945, issued in 1908 to Williams and French Patent #1,074,960, issued in 1953 to Rigolot, both provide hinged champagne openers with curved gripping heads and a top guard. The gripping jaws are jagged or roughened with undulating ridges on the curved gripping surface providing only surface texture, but they would not penetrate into the stopper for a sure-locking grip and they would not even contact the stopper surface because the ribs of the wire basket would prevent the surface of the tool from contacting the stopper, since the surface protrusions are shorter than the thickness of the ribs on a wire basket over the champagne stopper. The U.K. tool end for cutting the wire basket would produce sharp wire points which could cause injury or damage.
German Patent #655,401, issued in 1937 to Stauffer, shows a hinged gripping tool for champagne stopper removal with curved gripping heads and guards, but no protrusions on the gripping surface to penetrate the stopper for a sure grip.
French Patent #2,367,699, issued in 1978 to Ferracci and U.S. Pat. No. 2,495,308, issued in 1948 to Amigone both show hinged champagne stopper removing tools with curved gripping heads having serrations or protruding lugs. Neither patent provides a top guard to hold in the stopper at the top or long pointed teeth to penetrate the stopper. Neither patents provide sufficient length of protrusions to contact and penetrate the stopper because the ribs of the wire basket over the stopper would prevent sufficient contact of the stopper for penetration.
None of the prior art devices provide sufficiently protruding and sufficiently pointed long teeth separated by a sufficient distance with a sufficient indentation between the teeth to enable the teeth to straddle the ribs on a wire basket to permit the teeth to pierce through the foil and penetrate the stopper a sufficient distance for sure retention of the stopper afforded by such teeth in conjunction with a top guard.
None of the prior art devices provide, in combination with a champagne stopper removal device, a hook on one pivoting member which is sharp for piercing the foil to access the wire loop of the wire basket and an overlapping half of the hook on another pivoting member to close over and lock onto the wire loop in a closed ring for securing the wire loop therein enabling the twisting of the wire loop to disengage the wire basket while securely holding the wire basket and the stopper, preventing the stopper from leaving the tool should the stopper release by itself upon loosening the wire basket.
Thus there is a clear need for an inventive new tool that will allow a person to quickly remove the stopper from a bottle of champagne in such a way that the stopper remains clamped in the tool, thus preventing it from flying through the air upon removal. Such a needed device would prevent injury during stopper removal, thus making serving and drinking champagne a more enjoyable experience for everyone involved. Such a tool would also successfully remove the foil, basket and stopper from the bottle neck all with one easy twist. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages as described in the following summary.